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Today’s tip comes again from someone — two people, actually — who (like the Musers of The Ticket) didn’t know they were giving a tip.

Offering to share a lane is always a welcome gesture

TIP OF THE DAY:

SHARE INFO (and lanes)

I had my usual pull today between swimming at lunch or swimming after work or skipping a swim altogether.

Part of me said, “You didn’t swim Monday or Tuesday, so of course you should go today, and now. If you don’t, you’ll be driving home and wish you had.

The other part countered: “It’s hot. Do you really want to leave the office? Anyway, maybe this should be the week you take it easy/easier.”

But I went (yeah, surprise). The pool has three lanes, unlike other pools that have four. But no matter; I usually have the pool (or at least a lane) to myself. Today though, there were two people — as in speedy men — in each of two lanes. In the third, only one guy was swimming, but Bryan Mineo, (whom I had met before and wrote about here) was walking alongside him outside the pool, offering pointers.

I stood there, no doubt looking uncomfortable (an art in which I am not particularly proud to say I excel). The man closest to the dressing-room side of the pool took off his goggles when he saw me and said, almost apologetically, “Everyone in the pool just got started.”

I thanked him for telling me, then asked, “Are you guys a team? I’m not used to seeing anyone else here.”

“No,” he said. “And I’m not either.”

Then he turned to the guy in the solo lane, yelling across two lanes: “When will you be finished?”

Which was really really appreciated, because I came very close to just leaving and going back to the office, all the while no doubt thinking, “What a waste of my time!”

But it wasn’t. And though I felt rather clumsy and a bit self-conscious, at least initially, I did get my swim in (plus a few extra laps). All because a total stranger took that extra step, and someone else had no hesitation about sharing.